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All image and video rights reserved to Jonatan Söderström (AKA Cactus) or their respective owner.

Jonatan Söderström (AKA Cactus)

Gothenburg, Sweden

At Ballista, the world of indie game design is blurred with opaque thoughts of all night programing marathons and workstations that look like they’re from the movie Alien. (We probably outed ourselves as novices just by making that reference.) Regardless, when researching a topic we often find it’s helpful to start the search at the top. In the view of many, one of the top spots in indie game design is held by Cactus, a Swedish independent game designer who’s given name is Jonatan Söderström.

Jonatan’s rise to top can be attributed to his prolific output. He has developed overs 40 games to date. His unique style and imaginative plots are also likely contributors to his success. At the 2008 Independent Games Festival his game Clean Asia was nominated for both Excellence In Visual Arts and Excellence in Audio. In 2010, he won the Independent Game Festival Nuovo Award for experimental gameplay for his game Tuning.

Jonatan’s website, CACTUSQUID, features several of his games (available for download on his blog) and his signature quirky style.